CLEVELAND -- Money, idle time and a youthful feeling of invincibility could be a damaging if not a fatal combination, AFC rookies were reminded Sunday and Monday as part of the NFL Rookie Symposium being conducted this week in the Cleveland areas.

Headquarters for the symposium is the Bertram Hotel in Aurora, where this year's rookie class listened to former and current players tell their stories. Some were success stories, but the message that had the biggest impact was the temptation to use drugs could bring anyone to ruin -- even a player that believes he is well-grounded.

One of those players is Adam Jones, currently a cornerback with the Bengals. He has a long rap sheet of arrests. He was suspended all of 2007 by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell for violating the league's conduct policy.

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"Adam, he's a West Virginia guy so I've had many conversations with him," Jets rookie quarterback Geno Smith said. "He's always been a guy who preached don't make the same mistakes he's done. He's made a lot of mistakes in his career, but he's still standing strong and working hard.

"He's using his past trials and tribulations to help us as rookies. You can see how those decisions will affect him. It will affect all of us if we follow down that same path. It does resonate more because he's a guy who had a tremendous amount of talent and high expectations, but he let some bad decisions affect him on and off the field."

Chris Herren was also one of the speakers. He is a former NBA player with the Boston Celtics who by 2011 had seven drug-related felonies on his record, including heroin and crystal meth. He overdosed on heroin and drove into a utility pole in Fall River, Mass. Paramedics attending him said he was dead for 30 seconds, according to reports.

"He was a guy that lost a lot," Browns linebacker Barkevious Mingo said. "Nearly lost his family for the choice that he made. And he was sitting in the same seat that we were saying that it wasn't going to be him. He was a guy that didn't listen, so I guess he kind of challenged everybody that was in the room. I looked around and everybody was paying attention to what he had to say because it was real.

"Everybody thinks (it won't happen to me). 'I'm not going to do this, I'm not going to do that.' But he kind of made you realize it can happen to you if you choose the wrong decisions. For him, it was a $20 pill, he said that just damaged his life tremendously. He went from that pill to a different drug and it was just events that doomed his life, but he's recovered from that and he's better for that."

Jim Brown ill

Part of the symposium includes enlightening rookies on the history of the NFL with a tour of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton on Wednesday. Browns Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown, 77, was to help guide the tour, but he had to cancel.

"I am very sorry that I am unable to attend tomorrow's Hall of Fame session with the rookie class," Brown said in a statement released by the league. "Our young NFL players are very dear to me, but due to my extensive travels of late, I am extremely tired and need to rest. I look forward to returning to Ohio this summer for all of the festivities as we celebrate 50 years of the Pro Football Hall of Fame."

"Play 60" a hit with players

The time AFC rookies spent on the practice fields Tuesday was a refreshing change from the important lectures they heard Sunday and Monday in Aurora

"It's just amazing," Chargers rookie linebacker Manti Te'o said. "When you come out here with these kids, you see yourself 15 years ago, just star-struck because you're around stars, guys that you watched on TV and all of a sudden now, I'm that guy. For me to be out here and see these kids, I see myself when I was that age. They're just having fun and for us to be a part of that is something special.

"It reminds you of what this game is all about and it's all about having fun. It's a game you played just like them in the backyard or in the street. When you see them playing you see that genuine love for the game and joy for playing it and it kind of just reboots you."